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Making Democracy Work

Q & A with NonprofitVOTE

Summer Newletter

With support from the New York Community Trust,

In 2014, 2016 and 2017 Community Votes demonstrated that when direct-service nonprofits are activated they can dramatically raise unacceptably low voter registration and turnout rates.

In 2017 our partners reached almost 8,000 voters living in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn and 77% of these voters did not have a history of voting.

In 2018 our partners continued to disrupt the vicious cycle of voter apathy by distributing voter guides, reminding people to vote and talking about the importance of voting in primary elections. Read more

Community Votes is recruiting now for a free program that includes a $1500 mini grant to support youth voter engagement projects focused on the 2020 election.

The program will identify ways to integrate nonpartisan voter engagement activities - think voter registration drives, phone banking, canvassing, creating voter guides, etc! - within existing programs. This Train the Trainer model includes ongoing support for these voter engagement activities and concludes with a report on each organization's success in reaching and turning out voters.

There is room for 12 organizations to join the project. Reach out to Louisa Hackett with questions lhackett@communityvotes.org or fill out a brief application here if you want to sign up!

NEWS

Members of Neighbors Together share some of the reasons voting in local elections matter.

Community Votes partners with community-based social service organizations to conduct nonpartisan voter mobilization so more underrepresented citizens participate in our democracy.

The overall vision is to change the culture and mindset of large nonprofit social service agencies so they integrate into their day-to-day operations civic engagement activities. These activities include promoting awareness of elections and issues and encouraging voting and other participation in federal, state, and city policy making.

Our Mission & Vision

MOBILIZE SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS

Community Votes was founded in 2014 to help nonprofit organizations take on nonpartisan voter mobilization so more underrepresented citizens participate in our democracy.

"Community Votes has brought so much to our organization!

I recommend Community Votes to any organization looking to integrate voter registration and voter turnout into their programs.”

Julia Watt-Rosenfeld
Director of Community Organizing & Advocacy

Cypress Hills LDC - Serves 72,000 residents

living in the northeast corner of Brooklyn

BUILD CAPACITY READ MORE

Voter research has shown that one-on-one conversations with a trusted person are the single most effective way to get someone to vote.

Because nonprofit staff are a trusted source of information we partner with community-based social service agencies whose staff interacts with people living in some of the city's lowest income neighborhoods. We help the staff incorporate nonpartisan voter engagement activities within their on-going programs.

"Our partnership with Community Votes has provided Riis with a clear and compelling way to achieve our mission of acting as a catalyst for change.”

Chris Hanway, Executive Director

Jacob A. Riis Settlement Neighborhood Settlement

Provides programs in the largest public housing complex in the country

ACHIEVE RESULTS

In 2014 Community Votes joined a Nonprofit Vote study that demonstrated our partners helped to narrow the troubling gaps in voter participation – between low and high-income and between young and old. Our partners raised registration and turnout rates by 50 to more than 100 percent, including among the least likely voters: lower income, younger, as well as immigrant populations and communities of color.

In 2016 the nonprofits working with Community Votes used their large, non-profit institutions as platforms to test strategies for engaging thousands of prospective voters. Our education and mobilization trainings reached 180 staff members from 39 organizations. Together, our partners moved 1,000 people to register or sign pledges to vote, and made more than 2,000 telephone calls to remind people to vote.